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 R L Y
A
E ESS
A C C
 N O S TA R C H P R E S S
E A R LY A C C E S S P R O G R A M :
FEEDBACK W ELCOME!

Welcome to the Early Access edition of the as yet unpublished Make Python
Talk by Mark Liu! As a prepublication title, this book may be incomplete and
some chapters may not have been proofread.
Our goal is always to make the best books possible, and we look forward
to hearing your thoughts. If you have any comments or questions, email us
at earlyaccess@nostarch.com. If you have specific feedback for us, please
include the page number, book title, and edition date in your note, and
we’ll be sure to review it. We appreciate your help and support!
We’ll email you as new chapters become available. In the meantime,
enjoy!
 M A K E P Y T H O N TA L K
MARK LIU
Early Access edition, 3/30/21

Copyright © 2021 by Mark Liu.

ISBN 13: 978-1-7185-0156-0 (print)

ISBN 13: 978-1-7185-0157-7 (ebook)

Publisher: William Pollock

Executive Editor: Barbara Yien
Production Editor: Paula Williamson
Developmental Editor: Liz Chadwick
Cover and Interior Design: Octopod Studios
Cover Illustrator: Gina Redman
Technical Reviewer: Noah Spahn
Copyeditor: Sharon Wilkey
Compositor: Jeff Lytle, Happenstance Type-O-Rama
Proofreader: Paula Fleming

No Starch Press and the No Starch Press logo are registered trademarks of No Starch Press,
Inc. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their
respective owners. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a trade-
marked name, we are using the names only in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the
trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark.

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by
any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any informa-
tion storage or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner
and the publisher.

The information in this book is distributed on an “As Is” basis, without warranty. While every
precaution has been taken in the preparation of this work, neither the author nor No Starch
Press, Inc. shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage
caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in it.
 CONTENTS

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Part I: Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Chapter 1: Install Python via Anaconda and Spyder . . . . . . . . .
Chapter 2: Python Refresher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Part II: Learning to Talk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Chapter 3: Speech Recognition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Chapter 4: Make Python Talk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Chapter 5: Speaking Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Chapter 6: Web Scraping Podcasts, Radios, and Videos . . . . 39
Chapter 7: Building a Virtual Personal Assistant . . . . . . . . . . 61
Chapter 8: Know-it-all VPA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Part III: Interactive Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Chapter 9: Graphics and Animation with the turtle Module . . . 95
Chapter 10: Tic-Tac-Toe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Chapter 11: Connect Four . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Chapter 12: guess-the-word Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Chapter 13: Smart Games: Adding Intelligence . . . . . . . . . 167
Part IV: Going Further . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Chapter 14: Financial Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Chapter 15: Stock Market Watch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Chapter 16: Use Other Languages: Translator
Chapter 17: Ultimate VPA
Appendix A: Useful Speech Modules
Appendix B: Answers to End of Chapter Exercises
Index

The chapters in red are included in this Early Access PDF.

 Make Python Talk (Early Access) © 2021 by Mark Liu

4
M A K E P Y T H O N TA L K

In this chapter, you’ll learn how to make

Python talk back to you in a human voice.
You’ll first install the text-to-speech mod-
ule based on your operating system, and then
teach Python to speak aloud whatever you enter on
your computer. You’ll also add the speech-recognition
feature you learned in Chapter 3 and get Python to
repeat your own speech. Finally, you’ll build a real-
world application to use voice inputs to ask Python
to calculate the area of a rectangle and tell you the
answer in a human voice.
To save space, you’ll put all text-to-speech-related code in a self-made
module. Once you know how to do that, you can import the module into
any script that needs the text-to-speech feature.
 Make Python Talk (Early Access) © 2021 by Mark Liu

You’ll also learn how to ask Python to read a long text file such as a
news article aloud. Before you begin, set up the folder /mpt/ch04/ for this
chapter.

NE W SKILL S

• Installing speech-related modules depending on your operating system

• Adjusting properties of your text-to-speech module
• Learning how to create a module that is portable cross-platform
• Combining the text-to-speech module with speech recognition so a com-
puter can repeat what you said
• Making the computer solve a problem and answer you in a human voice

Install the Text-to-Speech Module

Python has two commonly used text-to-speech modules: pyttsx3 and gTTS.
If you use Windows, you’ll install pyttsx3 and use it throughout the book.
In the Windows operating system, the pyttsx3 module works offline, has a
human-like voice, and lets you adjust the speech properties—namely, the
speed, volume, and gender of the voice output.
However, the pyttsx3 module works differently in Mac and Linux. The
voice sounds robotic, and the speech properties are not easily adjustable.
Therefore, you’ll install gTTS if you use Mac or Linux. The gTTS module
requires an internet connection since it uses the Google Translate text-to-
speech application programming interface (API). Further, gTTS does not
play the sound directly. It saves the voice as an audio file or file-like object.
You’ll have to use your own audio player to hear the voice. The voice gen-
erated by gTTS is very human-like.
In Chapter 2, you built a virtual environment called chatting for speech
recognition. You’ll install the pyttsx3 or gTTS module in the same virtual
environment so your script will have both the speech-recognition and text-
to-speech features.

Set Up
If you are using Windows, go to the “Install pyttsx3 in Windows” section
and skip the “Install gTTS in Mac or Linux” section. Otherwise, skip the
“Install pyttsx3 in Windows” section and go to the “Install gTTS in Mac or
Linux” section.

Install pyttsx3 in Windows

The pyttsx3 module is not in the Python standard library, so you’ll need to
install it via pip.

2 Chapter 4
 Make Python Talk (Early Access) © 2021 by Mark Liu

If you haven’t already set up your chatting virtual environment, go back

to Chapter 2 now and follow the instructions to do so. Then activate the
virtual environment chatting in the Anaconda prompt by executing the
following:

conda activate chatting

With your chatting virtual environment activated, enter this:

pip install pyttsx3

Follow the instructions onscreen to finish the installation.

Install gTTS in Mac or Linux

The gTTS module is not in the Python standard library, so you’ll need to
install it via pip.
If you haven’t already set up your chatting virtual environment, go back
to Chapter 2 now and follow the instructions to do so. Then activate the vir-
tual environment chatting in a terminal by executing the following:

conda activate chatting

With your chatting virtual environment activated in your terminal, enter

this:

pip install gtts

Follow the instructions onscreen to finish the installation.

Test Your Text-to-Speech Module

Before beginning, you’ll check that your text-to-speech module is properly
installed and working. Based on your operating system, skip the sections
that don’t apply to you.

Run a Sample Script in Windows

With your virtual environment activated and Spyder open, copy the script
test_pyttsx3.py into your editor and save it in your chapter folder. If you pre-
fer, you can download the file from the book’s resources through https://
www.nostarch.com/makepythontalk/.

import pyttsx3
1 engine = pyttsx3.init()
2 engine.say("hello, how are you?")
engine.runAndWait()

First import the pyttsx3 module to the script. Then use init() to initiate
a text-to-speech engine in the pyttsx3 module and call it engine 1. The say()
function in the pyttsx3 module converts the text to a speech signal, and

Make Python Talk 3

 Make Python Talk (Early Access) © 2021 by Mark Liu

prepares to send it to the speaker 2. The runAndWait() function then sends

the actual speech signal to the speaker so you can hear the sound. The
runAndWait() function also keeps the engine running so that when you want
to convert text to speech later in the script, you don’t need to initiate the
engine again.
Run test_pyttsx3.py line by line by using the F9 key to help you under-
stand how each line of code functions.

NOTE The say() function in the pyttsx3 module only converts the text to a speech signal
and prepares to send it to the speaker. It does not do the actual speaking. To hear the
sound, use runAndWait(), which sends the speech signal to the speaker.

If the module is correctly installed, when you finish running the whole
script, you should hear a voice saying, “Hello, how are you?” If not, recheck
the instructions and make sure that the speaker on your computer is work-
ing properly at the right volume. I’ll discuss later in this chapter how to cus-
tomize the speed, volume, and the voice gender associated with the pyttsx3
module.

Run a Sample Script in Mac or Linux

We’ll use the gtts-cli tool (cli stands for command line) to convert text to
speech, instead of converting text to an audio file, and then play it. The
gtts-cli tool is faster than the alternative method. Once you install the gTTS
module, the gtts-cli tool is available in the command line in your virtual
environment. The gtts-cli tool converts the text to a file-like object, and you
have to choose which audio player to play it. I find that the mpg123 player
works well.
First, you need to install the mpg123 player on your computer. If you
are using Mac, run the following command on a terminal:

brew install mpg123

If you are using Linux, run the following two commands on a terminal:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install mpg123

Once you’re finished, with your virtual environment activated, run the
following command in a terminal:

gtts-cli --nocheck "hello, how are you?" | mpg123 -q -

If you have correctly installed everything, you should hear a voice saying,
“Hello, how are you?” If not, recheck the instructions and make sure that the
speaker on your computer is working properly at the right volume. Further,
since you have installed the gTTS module in your virtual environment, you
have to run the preceding command with your virtual environment acti-
vated. Otherwise, it won’t work.

4 Chapter 4
 Make Python Talk (Early Access) © 2021 by Mark Liu

The nocheck option in this command is to speed up execution. The q

flag instructs the module not to display copyright and version messages,
even in an interactive mode. Make sure you don’t miss the hyphen at the
end of the command.
Next, you’ll use the os module in Python to execute commands in a
subshell.
Copy the test_gtts.py script into your Spyder editor and save it in your
chapter folder. The script is also available at the book’s resources through
https://www.nostarch.com/makepythontalk.

import os

os.system('gtts-cli --nocheck "hello, how are you?" | mpg123 -q -')

First import the os module to the script. Then use system()to execute a
command in a subshell to achieve the same effect of running the command
in a terminal. As a result, the gtts-cli tool is used to convert text to a file-like
object. After that, the mpg123 player plays the sound object so you can hear
a human voice.

NOTE You don’t need to explicitly import the gTTS module in test_gtts.py because you use
the gtts-cli tool in the command line, even though the gTTS module is used.

If you’ve done everything correctly, you should hear a voice saying,

“Hello, how are you?”

Convert Text to Voice in Windows

Now let’s practice converting written text input into a human voice in
Windows. With your virtual environment activated and Spyder open, copy
the script tts_windows.py, as shown in Listing 4-1, into your editor and save
and run it.

import pyttsx3

engine = pyttsx3.init()
1 while True:
2 inp = input("What do you want to covert to speech?\n")
3 if inp == "done":
print(f"You just typed in {inp}, goodbye!")
engine.say(f"You just typed in {inp}, goodbye!")
engine.runAndWait()
break
4 else:
print(f"You just typed in {inp}")
engine.say(f"You just typed in {inp}")
engine.runAndWait()
5 continue

Listing 4-1: Converting text to voice in Windows

Make Python Talk 5

 Make Python Talk (Early Access) © 2021 by Mark Liu

After importing the pyttsx3 module and initiating a text-to-speech engine,

start an infinite loop to take user text input 1. In each iteration, the script
asks for text input at the IPython console 2. If you want to stop the script,
enter done 3, and the script will print and say in a human voice, “You just
typed in done; goodbye!” After that, the loop stops, and the script quits
running.
If the text input is not done, the else branch runs 4, and the script speaks
your text input out loud in a human voice. After that, the script goes to the
next iteration and takes your text input again 5.
The following is sample output from the script (user input is in bold):

What do you want to covert to speech?

Python is great!
You just typed in Python is great!

What do you want to covert to speech?

Hello, world!
You just typed in Hello, world!

What do you want to covert to speech?

done
You just typed in done; goodbye!

Convert Text to Voice in Mac or Linux

Now we’ll practice converting written text input into a human voice in Mac
or Linux. With your virtual environment activated and Spyder open, copy
the script tts_mac_linux.py (Listing 4-2) into your editor, and save and run it.

import os

while True: 1
inp = input("What do you want to covert to speech?\n") 2
if inp == "done": 3
print(f"You just typed in {inp}, goodbye!")
os.system(f'gtts-cli --nocheck "You just typed in {inp}, goodbye!" | mpg123 -q -')
break
else: 4
print(f"You just typed in {inp}")
os.system(f'gtts-cli --nocheck "You just typed in {inp}" | mpg123 -q -')
continue 5

Listing 4-2: Converting text to voice in Mac and Linux

After importing the os module so you can run commands in a subshell,

start an infinite loop to take user text input 1. In each iteration, the script
asks for text input at the IPython console 2. If you want to stop the script,
enter done 3, and the script will print and say in a human voice, “You just
typed in done; goodbye!” After that, the loop stops, and the script quits
running.

6 Chapter 4
 Make Python Talk (Early Access) © 2021 by Mark Liu

If the text input is not done, the else branch runs 4, and the script speaks
your text input out loud in a human voice. After that, the script goes to the
next iteration and takes your text input again 5.
The following is sample output from the script (user input is in bold):

What do you want to covert to speech?

Python is great!
You just typed in Python is great!

What do you want to covert to speech?

Hello, world!
You just typed in Hello, world!

What do you want to covert to speech?

done
You just typed in done; goodbye!

Repeat After Me
We’ll start with a simple script that hears what you say aloud and repeats it
in a human voice. This script serves two purposes. First, you’ll learn how the
script takes your voice inputs, and which words are easiest for the script to
understand—some uncommon words won’t be understood. Second, you’ll
learn how to put both the speech-recognition and text-to-speech features
in the same script, so you can communicate with the computer through
human voices only.
We’ll also make the script portable cross-platform. The script will auto-
matically choose the pyttsx3 module if you are using Windows and the gTTS
module otherwise.
Start a new script, name it repeat_me.py, and enter the code in Listing 4-3.
Make sure to save it in your chapter folder. You’ll also need to copy your
mysr.py file from Chapter 3 and paste it into the same folder, as we’ll need
voice_to_text() from that script.

# Make sure you put mysr.py in the same folder as this script
from mysr import voice_to_text

import platform 1
if platform.system() == "Windows":
import pyttsx3
engine = pyttsx3.init()
else:
import os

while True:
print('Python is listening...')
inp = voice_to_text() 2
if inp == "stop listening": 3
print(f'You just said {inp}; goodbye!')
if platform.system() == "Windows":

Make Python Talk 7

 Make Python Talk (Early Access) © 2021 by Mark Liu

engine.say(f'You just said {inp}, goodbye!')

engine.runAndWait()
else:
os.system(f'gtts-cli --nocheck "You just said {inp}; goodbye!" | mpg123 -q -')
break

else:
print(f'You just said {inp}')
if platform.system() == "Windows": 4
engine.say(f'You just said {inp}')
engine.runAndWait()
else:
os.system(f'gtts-cli --nocheck "You just said {inp}" | mpg123 -q -')
continue

Listing 4-3: Repeating aloud

WARNING Remember to put mysr.py in the same folder as Listing 4-3. Otherwise, the speech-
recognition feature won’t work! Yes, I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating until it
sinks in.

We first import the voice_to_text() function from the mysr module to

convert voice commands into a string variable. We then import the platform
module, which lets the script automatically identify your operating system
and choose the appropriate command for you 1. If you are using Windows,
the script imports the pyttsx3 module and initiates a text-to-speech engine.
Otherwise, the script imports the os module so you can use the gtts-cli tool
in a subshell.
We then start an infinite loop to take voice inputs. The script takes your
voice command and converts it into a string variable called inp 2. If you say,
“Stop listening” 3 to the microphone, the script will say aloud, “You just
said stop listening; goodbye!” After that, the script stops. The script uses
either the pyttsx3 module or the gtts-cli tool to achieve that based on your
operating system.
If you say anything else into the microphone, the loop will keep run-
ning. At each iteration, the script will repeat what you said out loud 4.
The following is the output from the script after I said, “Hello, how are
you” and “Stop listening” into the microphone sequentially:

Python is listening...
You just said hello
Python is listening...
You just said how are you
Python is listening...
You just said stop listening; goodbye!

NOTE If you pause often while the script stands by, the script may say, “You just said” in a
human voice again and again when you are not speaking. To avoid that, you can
modify repeat_me.py by removing the You just said part ( 4 in Listing 4-3).

8 Chapter 4
 Make Python Talk (Early Access) © 2021 by Mark Liu

Customize the Speech

In this section, you’ll learn how to customize the speech produced by your
text-to-speech module. You can adjust the speed and volume of the speech
as well as the identity of the voice in the pyttsx3 module in Windows. If you
are using Mac or Linux, the only thing you can customize is the speed of
the voice in the gTTS module.
Skip any of the following subsections that don’t apply to your operating
system.

Retrieve Default Settings in the pyttsx3 Module in Windows

First, you need to see the default values of the parameters for the speed,
volume, and identity of the voice in the pyttsx3 module in Windows.
This script will retrieve the default settings for your speech module. In
Spyder, enter the code in Listing 4-4 and save it as pyttsx3_property.py in the
chapter folder.

import pyttsx3

engine = pyttsx3.init()
1 voices = engine.getProperty('voices')
2 for voice in voices:
print(voice)
3 rate = engine.getProperty("rate")
print("the default speed of the speech is", rate)
vol = engine.getProperty("volume")
print("the default volume of the speech is", vol)

Listing 4-4: Retrieving the default settings

At 1, you use getProperty()to obtain the properties of the voices used in

the engine. You then iterate through all the voice objects in the list voices
2 and print out individual voice objects.
You use getProperty() 3 to obtain the properties of the speed and print
the default speed, and then do the same for the default volume.
If you run this script in Windows, you’ll see the default settings for your
speech script, similar to the following output:

<Voice id=HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Speech\Voices\Tokens\TTS_MS_EN-US_DAVID_11.0
name=Microsoft David Desktop - English (United States)
languages=[]
gender=None
age=None>
<Voice id=HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Speech\Voices\Tokens\TTS_MS_EN-US_ZIRA_11.0
name=Microsoft Zira Desktop - English (United States)
languages=[]
gender=None
age=None>
the default speed of the speech is 200
the default volume of the speech is 1.0

Make Python Talk 9

 Make Python Talk (Early Access) © 2021 by Mark Liu

Here you can see the two voices available to the pyttsx3 module. The
first voice is named David with a male voice tone; the second voice is named
Zira with a female voice tone. The default voice tone is David, hence the
male voice you hear in test_pyttsx3.py.
The default speech speed is 200 words per minute. The default volume
is set at 1. You’ll learn how to adjust the speed, volume, and ID in the pyttsx3
module in Windows next.

Adjust Speech Properties in the pyttsx3 Module in Windows

This script will change the default settings so you can hear a voice with the
speed, volume, and ID that you prefer. Save Listing 4-5 as pyttsx3_adjust.py.

import pyttsx3
engine = pyttsx3.init()
voice_id = 1
1 voices = engine.getProperty('voices')
2 engine.setProperty('voice', voices[voice_id].id)
3 engine.setProperty('rate', 150)
4 engine.setProperty('volume', 1.2)
5 engine.say("This is a test of my speech id, speed, and volume.")
engine.runAndWait()

Listing 4-5: Adjusting some settings

Let’s choose the second voice ID, which has a female voice. At 1, the
script obtains the voice objects available in the text-to-speech engine and
saves them in a list called voices. We choose the second object in the list voices
by giving the index [1] 2, which has a female voice tone. The setProperty()
function takes two arguments: the property to set, and the value to set it to.
We set the value to voices[voiceID].id to choose the id value of the female
voice object in Windows, which is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\
Microsoft\Speech\Voices\Tokens\TTS_MS_EN-US_ZIRA_11.0. If you want to
change to the male voice in Windows, you can use voices[0].id instead.
Here we set the speech speed to 150 words per minute 3. Most of us
speak at the rate of about 125 words per minute in our daily lives. For faster
speech, set it to a number greater than 125, and for slower speech, set it to a
number below 125.
We set the volume to 1.2 4, which is louder than the default value of
1. You can set this to higher or lower than 1 based on your preference and
speakers.
At 5, the script converts the text in say() into speech by using the
adjusted properties. Try running this script multiple times with different
combinations of parameters until you find the best combination for you.
You can always come back to this script and adjust.

Customize the gTTS Module in Mac or Linux

You can customize the speed, but not the volume or ID of the voice in gTTS,
according to the gTTS documentation; see, for example, https://buildmedia
.readthedocs.org/media/pdf/gtts/latest/gtts.pdf. However, gTTS can convert text to

10 Chapter 4
 Make Python Talk (Early Access) © 2021 by Mark Liu

speech in most major world languages including Spanish, French, German,

and so on, which the pyttsx3 module can’t do. You’ll use this feature of gTTS
to build a voice translator in Chapter 16.
This script will change the default speed to slow for the gTTS module.
In Spyder, enter the following code and save it as gtts_slow.py in the chapter
folder:

import os

os.system('gtts-cli –nocheck --slow "hello, how are you?" | mpg123 -q -')

The script is the same as test_gtts.py you’ve created before except that it
adds the --slow option. This changes the voice output to slower than normal.
If you run this script in Mac or Linux, you’ll hear the computer saying,
“Hello, how are you?” in a slow pace.
Since the default setting for the speed is slow=False, and that’s what we
prefer, we won’t customize the gTTS module.

Build the Local mysay Module

In Chapter 3, you put all commands related to speech recognition in a local
module named mysr. You’ll do the same here and put all text-to-speech-
related commands in a local module.

Create mysay
You’ll create a local module mysay and save it in the same folder as any script
that uses the text-to-speech feature. That way, you can save space in the main
script. This module has adjusted the properties for speed, volume, and gen-
der of the speech set in pyttsx3_adjust.py if you are using Windows. If you are
using Mac or Linux, the local module mysay will use the default properties
in the gTTS module. You can modify these parameters based on your own
preferences.
Enter the code in Listing 4-6 and save it as mysay.py in your chapter folder.

# Import the platform module to identify your OS

1 import platform

# If you are using Windows, use pyttsx3 for text to speech

2 if platform.system() == "Windows":
import pyttsx3
3 try:
engine = pyttsx3.init()
except ImportError:
pass
except RuntimeError:
pass
voices = engine.getProperty('voices')
engine.setProperty('voice', voices[1].id)
engine.setProperty('rate', 150)
engine.setProperty('volume', 1.2)

Make Python Talk 11

Other documents randomly have
different content
man shall pasture his land with cattle, or plant it with tobacco—so
little and so small a thing, that he concludes, if I could desire that
anything should be done to bring about the ultimate extinction of
that little thing, I must be in favor of bringing about an
amalgamation of all the other little things in the Union.
"Now it so happens—and there, I presume, is the foundation of
this mistake—that the Judge thinks thus; and it so happens that
there is a vast portion of the American People that do not look upon
that matter as being this very little thing. They look upon it as a vast
moral evil; they can prove it as such by the writings of those who
gave us the blessings of Liberty which we enjoy, and that they so
looked upon it, and not as an evil merely confining itself to the
States where it is situated; while we agree that, by the Constitution
we assented to, in the States where it exists we have no right to
interfere with it, because it is in the Constitution; and we are by both
duty and inclination to stick by that Constitution in all its letter and
spirit, from beginning to end. * * * The Judge can have no issue
with me on a question of establishing uniformity in the domestic
regulations of the States. * * *
"Another of the issues he says that is to be made with me, is upon
his devotion to the Dred Scott decision, and my opposition to it. I
have expressed heretofore, and I now repeat, my opposition to the
Dred Scott decision; but I should be allowed to state the nature of
that opposition. * * * What is fairly implied by the term Judge
Douglas has used, 'resistance to the decision?' I do not resist it. If I
wanted to take Dred Scott from his master, I would be interfering
with property and that terrible difficulty that Judge Douglas speaks
of, of interfering with property, would arise. But I am doing no such
thing as that, but all that I am doing is refusing to obey it, as a
political rule. If I were in Congress, and a vote should come up on a
question whether Slavery should be prohibited in a new Territory, in
spite of the Dred Scott decision, I would vote that it should. That is
what I would do.
"Judge Douglas said last night, that before the decision he might
advance his opinion, and it might be contrary to the decision when it
was made; but after it was made, he would abide by it until it was
reversed. Just so! We let this property abide by the decision, but we
will try to reverse that decision. We will try to put it where Judge
Douglas would not object, for he says he will obey it until it is
reversed. Somebody has to reverse that decision, since it is made,
and we mean to reverse it, and we mean to do it peaceably.
"What are the uses of decisions of Courts? They have two uses. As
rules of property they have two uses. First, they decide upon the
question before the Court. They decide in this case that Dred Scott is
a Slave. Nobody resists that. Not only that, but they say to
everybody else, that persons standing just as Dred Scott stands, are
as he is. That is, they say that when a question comes up upon
another person, it will be so decided again, unless the Court decides
in another way—unless the Court overrules its decision.—Well, we
mean to do what we can to have the Court decide the other way.
That is one thing we mean to try to do.
"The sacredness that Judge Douglas throws around this decision is
a degree of sacredness that has never before been thrown around
any other decision. I have never heard of such a thing. Why,
decisions apparently contrary to that decision, or that good lawyers
thought were contrary to that decision, have been made by that very
Court before. It is the first of its kind; it is an astonisher in legal
history. It is a new wonder of the world. It is based upon falsehood
in the main as to the facts—allegations of facts upon which it stands
are not facts at all in many instances; and no decision made on any
question—the first instance of a decision made under so many
unfavorable circumstances—thus placed, has ever been held by the
profession as law, and it has always needed confirmation before the
lawyers regarded it as settled law. But Judge Douglas will have it
that all hands must take this extraordinary decision, made under
these extraordinary circumstances, and give their vote in Congress in
accordance with it, yield to it and obey it in every possible sense.
"Circumstances alter cases. Do not gentlemen remember the case
of that same Supreme Court, some twenty-five or thirty years ago,
deciding that a National Bank was Constitutional? * * * The Bank
charter ran out, and a recharter was granted by Congress. That re-
charter was laid before General Jackson. It was urged upon him,
when he denied the Constitutionality of the Bank, that the Supreme
Court had decided that it was Constitutional; and General Jackson
then said that the Supreme Court had no right to lay down a rule to
govern a co-ordinate branch of the Government, the members of
which had sworn to support the Constitution—that each member
had sworn to support that Constitution as he understood it. I will
venture here to say, that I have heard Judge Douglas say that he
approved of General Jackson for that act. What has now become of
all his tirade about 'resistance to the Supreme Court?'"
After adverting to Judge Douglas's warfare on "the leaders" of the
Republican party, and his desire to have "it understood that the
mass of the Republican party are really his friends," Mr. Lincoln said:
"If you indorse him, you tell him you do not care whether Slavery be
voted up or down, and he will close, or try to close, your mouths
with his declaration repeated by the day, the week, the month, and
the year. Is that what you mean? * * * Now I could ask the
Republican party, after all the hard names that Judge Douglas has
called them by, all his repeated charges of their inclination to marry
with and hug negroes—all his declarations of Black Republicanism—
by the way, we are improving, the black has got rubbed off—but
with all that, if he be indorsed by Republican votes, where do you
stand? Plainly, you stand ready saddled, bridled, and harnessed, and
waiting to be driven over to the Slavery-extension camp of the
Nation—just ready to be driven over, tied together in a lot—to be
driven over, every man with a rope around his neck, that halter
being held by Judge Douglas. That is the question. If Republican
men have been in earnest in what they have done, I think that they
has better not do it. * * *
"We were often—more than once at least—in the course of Judge
Douglas's speech last night, reminded that this Government was
made for White men—that he believed it was made for White men.
Well, that is putting it in a shape in which no one wants to deny it;
but the Judge then goes into his passion for drawing inferences that
are not warranted. I protest, now and forever, against that
counterfeit logic which presumes that because I do not want a
Negro woman for a Slave I do necessarily want her for a wife. My
understanding is that I need not have her for either; but, as God has
made us separate, we can leave one another alone, and do one
another much good thereby. There are White men enough to marry
all the White women, and enough Black men to marry all the Black
women, and in God's name let them be so married. The Judge
regales us with the terrible enormities that take place by the mixture
of races; that the inferior race bears the superior down. Why, Judge,
if we do not let them get together in the Territories, they won't mix
there.
" * * * Those arguments that are made, that the inferior race are
to be treated with as much allowance as they are capable of
enjoying; that as much is to be done for them as their condition will
allow—what are these arguments? They are the arguments that
Kings have made for enslaving the People in all ages of the World.
You will find that all the arguments in favor of king-craft were of this
class; they always bestrode the necks of the People, not that they
wanted to do it, but because the People were better off for being
ridden! That is their argument, and this argument of the Judge is the
same old Serpent that says: you work, and I eat; you toil, and I will
enjoy the fruits of it.
"Turn it whatever way you will—whether it come from the mouth
of a King, an excuse for enslaving the People of his Country, or from
the mouth of men of one race as a reason for enslaving the men of
another race, it is all the same old Serpent; and I hold, if that course
of argumentation that is made for the purpose of convincing the
public mind that we should not care about this, should be granted, it
does not stop with the Negro.
"I should like to know, taking this old Declaration of
Independence, which declares that all men are equal upon principle,
and making exceptions to it, where will it stop? If one man says it
does not mean a Negro, why not say it does not mean some other
man? If that Declaration is not the truth, let us get the Statute Book,
in which we find it, and tear it out! Who is so bold as to do it? If it is
not true, let us tear it out!" [Cries of "No, no."] "Let us stick to it
then; let us stand firmly by it, then. * * *
" * * * The Saviour, I suppose, did not expect that any human
creature could be perfect as the Father in Heaven; but He said, 'As
your Father in Heaven is perfect, be ye also perfect.' He set that up
as a standard, and he who did most toward reaching that standard,
attained the highest degree of moral perfection. So I say, in relation
to the principle that all men are created equal—let it be as nearly
reached as we can. If we cannot give Freedom to every creature, let
us do nothing that will impose Slavery upon any other creature. Let
us then turn this Government back into the channel in which the
framers of the Constitution originally placed it. Let us stand firmly by
each other. * * * Let us discard all this quibbling * * * and unite as
one People throughout this Land, until we shall once more stand up
declaring that all men are created equal."
At Bloomington, July 16th (Mr. Lincoln being present), Judge
Douglas made another great speech of vindication and attack. After
sketching the history of the Kansas-Nebraska struggle, from the
introduction by himself of the Nebraska Bill in the United States
Senate, in 1854, down to the passage of the "English" Bill—which
prescribed substantially that if the people of Kansas would come in
as a Slave-holding State, they should be admitted with but 35,000
inhabitants; but if they would come in as a Free State, they must
have 93,420 inhabitants; which unfair restriction was opposed by
Judge Douglas, but to which after it became law he "bowed in
deference," because whatever decision the people of Kansas might
make on the coming third of August would be "final and conclusive
of the whole question"—he proceeded to compliment the
Republicans in Congress, for supporting the Crittenden-Montgomery
Bill—for coming "to the Douglas platform, abandoning their own,
believing (in the language of the New York Tribune), that under the
peculiar circumstances they would in that mode best subserve the
interests of the Country;" and then again attacked Mr. Lincoln for his
"unholy and unnatural alliance" with the Lecompton-Democrats to
defeat him, because of which, said he: "You will find he does not say
a word against the Lecompton Constitution or its supporters. He is
as silent as the grave upon that subject. Behold Mr. Lincoln courting
Lecompton votes, in order that he may go to the Senate as the
representative of Republican principles! You know that the alliance
exists. I think you will find that it will ooze out before the contest is
over." Then with many handsome compliments to the personal
character of Mr. Lincoln, and declaring that the question for decision
was "whether his principles are more in accordance with the genius
of our free institutions, the peace and harmony of the Republic" than
those advocated by himself, Judge Douglas proceeded to discuss
what he described as "the two points at issue between Mr. Lincoln
and myself."
Said he: "Although the Republic has existed from 1789 to this day,
divided into Free States and Slave States, yet we are told that in the
future it cannot endure unless they shall become all Free or all
Slave. * * * He wishes to go to the Senate of the United States in
order to carry out that line of public policy which will compel all the
States in the South to become Free. How is he going to do it? Has
Congress any power over the subject of Slavery in Kentucky or
Virginia or any other State of this Union? How, then, is Mr. Lincoln
going to carry out that principle which he says is essential to the
existence of this Union, to wit: That Slavery must be abolished in all
the States of the Union or must be established in them all? You
convince the South that they must either establish Slavery in Illinois
and in every other Free State, or submit to its abolition in every
Southern State and you invite them to make a warfare upon the
Northern States in order to establish Slavery for the sake of
perpetuating it at home. Thus, Mr. Lincoln invites, by his proposition,
a War of Sections, a War between Illinois and Kentucky, a War
between the Free States and the Slave States, a War between the
North and South, for the purpose of either exterminating Slavery in
every Southern State or planting it in every Northern State. He tells
you that the safety of the Republic, that the existence of this Union,
depends upon that warfare being carried on until one Section or the
other shall be entirely subdued. The States must all be Free or Slave,
for a house divided against itself cannot stand. That is Mr. Lincoln's
argument upon that question. My friends, is it possible to preserve
Peace between the North and the South if such a doctrine shall
prevail in either Section of the Union?
"Will you ever submit to a warfare waged by the Southern States
to establish Slavery in Illinois? What man in Illinois would not lose
the last drop of his heart's blood before lie would submit to the
institution of Slavery being forced upon us by the other States
against our will? And if that be true of us, what Southern man would
not shed the last drop of his heart's blood to prevent Illinois, or any
other Northern State, from interfering to abolish Slavery in his State?
Each of these States is sovereign under the Constitution; and if we
wish to preserve our liberties, the reserved rights and sovereignty of
each and every State must be maintained. * * * The difference
between Mr. Lincoln and myself upon this point is, that he goes for a
combination of the Northern States, or the organization of a
sectional political party in the Free States, to make War on the
domestic institutions of the Southern States, and to prosecute that
War until they all shall be subdued, and made to conform to such
rules as the North shall dictate to them.
"I am aware that Mr. Lincoln, on Saturday night last, made a
speech at Chicago for the purpose, as he said, of explaining his
position on this question. * * * His answer to this point which I have
been arguing, is, that he never did mean, and that I ought to know
that he never intended to convey the idea, that he wished the
people of the Free States to enter into the Southern States and
interfere with Slavery. Well, I never did suppose that he ever
dreamed of entering into Kentucky, to make War upon her
institutions, nor will any Abolitionist ever enter into Kentucky to
wage such War. Their mode of making War is not to enter into those
States where Slavery exists, and there interfere, and render
themselves responsible for the consequences. Oh, no! They stand on
this side of the Ohio River and shoot across. They stand in
Bloomington and shake their fists at the people of Lexington; they
threaten South Carolina from Chicago. And they call that bravery!
But they are very particular, as Mr. Lincoln says, not to enter into
those States for the purpose of interfering with the institution of
Slavery there. I am not only opposed to entering into the Slave
States, for the purpose of interfering with their institutions, but I am
opposed to a sectional agitation to control the institutions of other
States. I am opposed to organizing a sectional party, which appeals
to Northern pride, and Northern passion and prejudice, against
Southern institutions, thus stirring up ill feeling and hot blood
between brethren of the same Republic. I am opposed to that whole
system of sectional agitation, which can produce nothing but strife,
but discord, but hostility, and finally disunion. * * *
"I ask Mr. Lincoln how it is that he purposes ultimately to bring
about this uniformity in each and all the States of the Union? There
is but one possible mode which I can see, and perhaps Mr. Lincoln
intends to pursue it; that is, to introduce a proposition into the
Senate to change the Constitution of the United States in order that
all the State Legislatures may be abolished, State Sovereignty
blotted out, and the power conferred upon Congress to make local
laws and establish the domestic institutions and police regulations
uniformly throughout the United States.
"Are you prepared for such a change in the institutions of your
country? Whenever you shall have blotted out the State
Sovereignties, abolished the State Legislatures, and consolidated all
the power in the Federal Government, you will have established a
Consolidated Empire as destructive to the Liberties of the People and
the Rights of the Citizen as that of Austria, or Russia, or any other
despotism that rests upon the neck of the People. * * * There is but
one possible way in which Slavery can be abolished, and that is by
leaving a State, according to the principle of the Kansas-Nebraska
Bill, perfectly free to form and regulate its institutions in its own way.
That was the principle upon which this Republic was founded, and it
is under the operation of that principle that we have been able to
preserve the Union thus far under its operation. Slavery disappeared
from New Hampshire, from Rhode Island, from Connecticut, from
New York, from New Jersey, from Pennsylvania, from six of the
twelve original Slave-holding States; and this gradual system of
emancipation went on quietly, peacefully, and steadily, so long as we
in the Free States minded our own business, and left our neighbors
alone.
"But the moment the Abolition Societies were organized
throughout the North, preaching a violent crusade against Slavery in
the Southern States, this combination necessarily caused a counter-
combination in the South, and a sectional line was drawn which was
a barrier to any further emancipation. Bear in mind that
emancipation has not taken place in any one State since the Free
Soil Party was organized as a political party in this country.
Emancipation went on gradually, in State after State, so long as the
Free States were content with managing their own affairs and
leaving the South perfectly free to do as they pleased; but the
moment the North said we are powerful enough to control you of
the South, the moment the North proclaimed itself the determined
master of the South, that moment the South combined to resist the
attack, and thus sectional parties were formed and gradual
emancipation ceased in all the Slave-holding States.
"And yet Mr. Lincoln, in view of these historical facts, proposes to
keep up this sectional agitation, band all the Northern States
together in one political Party, elect a President by Northern votes
alone, and then, of course, make a Cabinet composed of Northern
men, and administer the Government by Northern men only, denying
all the Southern States of this Union any participation in the
administration of affairs whatsoever. I submit to you, my fellow-
citizens, whether such a line of policy is consistent with the peace
and harmony of the Country? Can the Union endure under such a
system of policy? He has taken his position in favor of sectional
agitation and sectional warfare. I have taken mine in favor of
securing peace, harmony, and good-will among all the States, by
permitting each to mind its own business, and discountenancing any
attempt at interference on the part of one State with the domestic
concerns of the others. * * *
 "Mr. Lincoln tells you that he is opposed to the decision of the
Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case. Well, suppose he is; what is
he going to do about it? * * * Why, he says he is going to appeal to
Congress. Let us see how he will appeal to Congress. He tells us that
on the 8th of March, 1820, Congress passed a law called the
Missouri Compromise, prohibiting Slavery forever in all the territory
west of the Mississippi and north of the Missouri line of thirty-six
degrees and thirty minutes; that Dred Scott, a slave in Missouri, was
taken by his master to Fort Snelling, in the present State of
Minnesota, situated on the west branch of the Mississippi River, and
consequently in the Territory where Slavery was prohibited by the
Act of 1820; and that when Dred Scott appealed for his Freedom in
consequence of having been taken into that Territory, the Supreme
Court of the United States decided that Dred Scott did not become
Free by being taken into that Territory, but that having been carried
back to Missouri, was yet a Slave.
"Mr. Lincoln is going to appeal from that decision and reverse it.
He does not intend to reverse it as to Dred Scott. Oh, no! But he will
reverse it so that it shall not stand as a rule in the future. How will
he do it? He says that if he is elected to the Senate he will introduce
and pass a law just like the Missouri Compromise, prohibiting Slavery
again in all the Territories. Suppose he does re-enact the same law
which the Court has pronounced unconstitutional, will that make it
Constitutional? * * * Will it be any more valid? Will he be able to
convince the Court that the second Act is valid, when the first is
invalid and void? What good does it do to pass a second Act? Why, it
will have the effect to arraign the Supreme Court before the People,
and to bring them into all the political discussions of the Country.
Will that do any good? * * *
"The functions of Congress are to enact the Statutes, the province
of the Court is to pronounce upon their validity, and the duty of the
Executive is to carry the decision into effect when rendered by the
Court. And yet, notwithstanding the Constitution makes the decision
of the Court final in regard to the validity of an Act of Congress, Mr.
Lincoln is going to reverse that decision by passing another Act of
Congress. When he has become convinced of the Folly of the
proposition, perhaps he will resort to the same subterfuge that I
have found others of his Party resort to, which is to agitate and
agitate until he can change the Supreme Court and put other men in
the places of the present incumbents."
After ridiculing this proposition at some length, he proceeded:
"Mr. Lincoln is alarmed for fear that, under the Dred Scott
decision, Slavery will go into all the Territories of the United States.
All I have to say is that, with or without this decision, Slavery will go
just where the People want it, and not an inch further. * * * Hence,
if the People of a Territory want Slavery, they will encourage it by
passing affirmatory laws, and the necessary police regulations, patrol
laws and Slave Code; if they do not want it, they will withhold that
legislation, and, by withholding it, Slavery is as dead as if it was
prohibited by a Constitutional prohibition, especially if, in addition,
their legislation is unfriendly, as it would be if they were opposed to
it."
Then, taking up what he said was "Mr. Lincoln's main objection to
the Dred Scott decision," to wit: "that that decision deprives the
Negro of the benefits of that clause of the Constitution of the United
States which entitles the citizens of each State to all the privileges
and immunities of citizens of the several States," and admitting that
such would be its effect, Mr. Douglas contended at some length that
this Government was "founded on the White basis" for the benefit of
the Whites and their posterity. He did "not believe that it was the
design or intention of the signers of the Declaration of Independence
or the frames of the Constitution to include Negroes, Indians, or
other inferior races, with White men as citizens;" nor that the former
"had any reference to Negroes, when they used the expression that
all men were created equal," nor to "any other inferior race." He
held that, "They were speaking only of the White race, and never
dreamed that their language would be construed to apply to the
Negro;" and after ridiculing the contrary view, insisted that, "The
history of the Country shows that neither the signers of the
Declaration, nor the Framers of the Constitution, ever supposed it
possible that their language would be used in an attempt to make
this Nation a mixed Nation of Indians, Negroes, Whites, and
Mongrels."
The "Fathers proceeded on the White basis, making the White
people the governing race, but conceding to the Indian and Negro,
and all inferior races, all the rights and all the privileges they could
enjoy consistent with the safety of the society in which they lived.
That," said he, "is my opinion now. I told you that humanity,
philanthropy, justice, and sound policy required that we should give
the Negro every right, every privilege, every immunity consistent
with the safety and welfare of the State. The question, then,
naturally arises, what are those rights and privileges, and what is the
nature and extent of them? My answer is, that that is a question
which each State and each Territory must decide for itself. * * * I
am content with that position. My friend Lincoln is not. * * * He
thinks that the Almighty made the Negro his equal and his brother.
For my part I do not consider the Negro any kin to me, nor to any
other White man; but I would still carry my humanity and my
philanthropy to the extent of giving him every privilege and every
immunity that he could enjoy, consistent with our own good."
After again referring to the principles connected with non-
interference in the domestic institutions of the States and Territories,
and to the devotion of all his energies to them "since 1850, when,"
said he, "I acted side by side with the immortal Clay and the god-like
Webster, in that memorable struggle in which Whigs and Democrats
united upon a common platform of patriotism and the Constitution,
throwing aside partisan feelings in order to restore peace and
harmony to a distracted Country"—he alluded to the death-bed of
Clay, and the pledges made by himself to both Clay and Webster to
devote his own life to the vindication of the principles of that
Compromise of 1850 as a means of preserving the Union; and
concluded with this appeal: "This Union can only be preserved by
maintaining the fraternal feeling between the North and the South,
the East and the West. If that good feeling can be preserved, the
Union will be as perpetual as the fame of its great founders. It can
be maintained by preserving the sovereignty of the States, the right
of each State and each Territory to settle its domestic concerns for
itself, and the duty of each to refrain from interfering with the other
in any of its local or domestic institutions. Let that be done, and the
Union will be perpetual; let that be done, and this Republic, which
began with thirteen States and which now numbers thirty-two, which
when it began, only extended from the Atlantic to the Mississippi,
but now reaches to the Pacific, may yet expand, North and South,
until it covers the whole Continent, and becomes one vast ocean-
bound Confederacy. Then, my friends, the path of duty, of honor, of
patriotism, is plain. There are a few simple principles to be
preserved. Bear in mind the dividing line between State rights and
Federal authority; let us maintain the great principles of Popular
Sovereignty, of State rights and of the Federal Union as the
Constitution has made it, and this Republic will endure forever."
On the next evening, July 17th, at Springfield, both Douglas and
Lincoln addressed separate meetings.
After covering much the same ground with regard to the history of
the Kansas-Nebraska struggle and his own attitude upon it, as he did
in his previous speech, Mr. Douglas declined to comment upon Mr.
Lincoln's intimation of a Conspiracy between Douglas, Pierce,
Buchanan, and Taney for the passage of the Nebraska Bill, the
rendition of the Dred Scott decision, and the extension of Slavery,
but proceeded to dilate on the "uniformity" issue between himself
and Mr. Lincoln, in much the same strain as before, tersely summing
up with the statement that "there is a distinct issue of principles—
principles irreconcilable—between Mr. Lincoln and myself. He goes
for consolidation and uniformity in our Government. I go for
maintaining the Confederation of the Sovereign States under the
Constitution, as our fathers made it, leaving each State at liberty to
manage its own affairs and own internal institutions."
He then ridiculed, at considerable length, Mr. Lincoln's proposed
methods of securing a reversal by the United States Supreme Court
of the Dred Scott decision—especially that of an "appeal to the
People to elect a President who will appoint judges who will reverse
the Dred Scott decision," which he characterized as "a proposition to
make that Court the corrupt, unscrupulous tool of a political party,"
and asked, "when we refuse to abide by Judicial decisions, what
protection is there left for life and property? To whom shall you
appeal? To mob law, to partisan caucuses, to town meetings, to
revolution? Where is the remedy when you refuse obedience to the
constituted authorities?" In other respects the speech was largely a
repetition of his Bloomington speech.
Mr. Lincoln in his speech, the same night, at Springfield, opened
by contrasting the disadvantages under which, by reason of an
unfair apportionment of State Legislative representation and
otherwise, the Republicans of Illinois labored in this fight. Among
other disadvantages—whereby he said the Republicans were forced
"to fight this battle upon principle and upon principle alone"—were
those which he said arose "out of the relative positions of the two
persons who stand before the State as candidates for the Senate."
Said he: "Senator Douglas is of world-wide renown. All the
anxious politicians of his Party, or who have been of his Party for
years past, have been looking upon him as certainly, at no distant
day, to be the President of the United States. They have seen in his
round, jolly, fruitful face, Post-offices, Land-offices, Marshalships,
and Cabinet appointments, Chargeships and Foreign Missions,
bursting and sprouting out in wonderful exuberance, ready to be laid
hold of by their greedy hands. And as they have been gazing upon
this attractive picture so long, they cannot, in the little distraction
that has taken place in the party, bring themselves to give up the
charming hope; but with greedier anxiety they rush about him,
sustain him, and give him marches, triumphal entries, and
receptions, beyond what even in the days of his highest prosperity
they could have brought about in his favor. On the contrary, nobody
has ever expected me to be President. In my poor, lean, lank face,
nobody has ever seen that any cabbages were sprouting out."
Then he described the main points of Senator Douglas's plan of
campaign as being not very numerous. "The first," he said, "is
Popular Sovereignty. The second and third are attacks upon my
speech made on the 16th of June. Out of these three points—
drawing within the range of Popular Sovereignty the question of the
Lecompton Constitution—he makes his principal assault. Upon these
his successive speeches are substantially one and the same."
Touching the first point, "Popular Sovereignty"—"the great staple" of
Mr. Douglas's campaign—Mr. Lincoln affirmed that it was "the most
arrant Quixotism that was ever enacted before a community."
He said that everybody understood that "we have not been in a
controversy about the right of a People to govern themselves in the
ordinary matters of domestic concern in the States and Territories;"
that, "in this controversy, whatever has been said has had reference
to the question of Negro Slavery;" and "hence," said he, "when
hereafter I speak of Popular Sovereignty, I wish to be understood as
applying what I say to the question of Slavery only; not to other
minor domestic matters of a Territory or a State."
Having cleared away the cobwebs, Mr. Lincoln proceeded:
"Does Judge Douglas, when he says that several of the past years
of his life have been devoted to the question of 'Popular Sovereignty'
* * * mean to say that he has been devoting his life to securing the
People of the Territories the right to exclude Slavery from the
Territories? If he means so to say, he means to deceive; because he
and every one knows that the decision of the Supreme Court, which
he approves, and makes special ground of attack upon me for
disapproving, forbids the People of a Territory to exclude Slavery.
"This covers the whole ground from the settlement of a Territory
till it reaches the degree of maturity entitling it to form a State
Constitution. * * * This being so, the period of time from the first
settlement of a Territory till it reaches the point of forming a State
Constitution, is not the thing that the Judge has fought for, or is
fighting for; but, on the contrary, he has fought for, and is fighting
for, the thing that annihilates and crushes out that same Popular
Sovereignty. Well, so much being disposed of, what is left? Why, he
is contending for the right of the People, when they come to make a
State Constitution, to make it for themselves, and precisely as best
suits themselves. I say again, that is Quixotic. I defy contradiction
when I declare that the Judge can find no one to oppose him on that
proposition. I repeat, there is nobody opposing that proposition on
principle. * * * Nobody is opposing, or has opposed, the right of the
People when they form a State Constitution, to form it for
themselves. Mr. Buchanan and his friends have not done it; they,
too, as well as the Republicans and the Anti-Lecompton Democrats,
have not done it; but on the contrary, they together have insisted on
the right of the People to form a Constitution for themselves. The
difference between the Buchanan men, on the one hand, and the
Douglas men and the Republicans, on the other, has not been on a
question of principle, but on a question of fact * * * whether the
Lecompton Constitution had been fairly formed by the People or not.
* * * As to the principle, all were agreed.
"Judge Douglas voted with the Republicans upon that matter of
fact. He and they, by their voices and votes, denied that it was a fair
emanation of the People. The Administration affirmed that it was. *
* * This being so, what is Judge Douglas going to spend his life for?
Is he going to spend his life in maintaining a principle that no body
on earth opposes? Does he expect to stand up in majestic dignity
and go through his apotheosis and become a god, in the maintaining
of a principle which neither man nor mouse in all God's creation is
opposing?"
After ridiculing the assumption that Judge Douglas was entitled to
all the credit for the defeat of the Lecompton Constitution in the
House of Representatives—when the defeating vote numbered 120,
of which 6 were Americans, 20 Douglas (or Anti-Lecompton)
Democrats, and 94 Republicans —and hinting that perhaps he
placed "his superior claim to credit, on the ground that he performed
a good act which was never expected of him," or "upon the ground
of the parable of the lost sheep," of which it had been said, "that
there was more rejoicing over the one sheep that was lost and had
been found, than over the ninety and nine in the fold—" he added:
"The application is made by the Saviour in this parable, thus: 'Verily,
I say unto you, there is more rejoicing in Heaven over one sinner
that repenteth, than over ninety and nine just persons that need no
repentance.' And now if the Judge claims the benefit of this parable,
let him repent. Let him not come up here and say: 'I am the only
just person; and you are the ninety-nine sinners!' Repentance before
forgiveness is a provision of the Christian system, and on that
condition alone will the Republicans grant his forgiveness."
After complaining that Judge Douglas misrepresented his attitude
as indicated in his 16th of June speech at Springfield, in charging
that he invited "a War of Sections;"—that he proposed that "all the
local institutions of the different States shall become consolidated
and uniform," Mr. Lincoln denied that that speech could fairly bear
such construction.
In that speech he (Mr. L.) had simply expressed an expectation
that "either the opponents of Slavery will arrest the further spread of
it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is
in the course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates will push it
forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well
as new, North as well as South." Since then, at Chicago, he had also
expressed a "wish to see the spread of Slavery arrested, and to see
it placed where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the
course of ultimate extinction"—and, said he: "I said that, because I
supposed, when the public mind shall rest in that belief, we shall
have Peace on the Slavery question. I have believed—and now
believe—the public mind did rest on that belief up to the introduction
of the Nebraska Bill. Although I have ever been opposed to Slavery,
so far I rested in the hope and belief that it was in the course of
ultimate extinction. For that reason, it had been a minor question
with me. I might have been mistaken; but I had believed, and now
believe, that the whole public mind, that is, the mind of the great
majority, had rested in that belief up to the Repeal of the Missouri
Compromise. But upon that event, I became convinced that either I
had been resting in a delusion, or the institution was being placed
on a new basis—a basis for making it Perpetual, National, and
Universal. Subsequent events have greatly confirmed me in that
belief.
 "I believe that Bill to be the beginning of a Conspiracy for that
purpose. So believing, I have since then considered that question a
paramount one. So believing, I thought the public mind would never
rest till the power of Congress to restrict the spread of it shall again
be acknowledged and exercised on the one hand, or, on the other,
all resistance be entirely crushed out. I have expressed that opinion
and I entertain it to-night."
Having given some pieces of evidence in proof of the "tendency,"
he had discovered, to the Nationalization of Slavery in these States,
Mr. Lincoln continued: "And now, as to the Judge's inference, that
because I wish to see Slavery placed in the course of ultimate
extinction—placed where our fathers originally placed it—I wish to
annihilate the State Legislatures—to force cotton to grow upon the
tops of the Green Mountains—to freeze ice in Florida—to cut lumber
on the broad Illinois prairies—that I am in favor of all these
ridiculous and impossible things! It seems to me it is a complete
answer to all this, to ask if, when Congress did have the fashion of
restricting Slavery from Free Territory; when Courts did have the
fashion of deciding that taking a Slave into a Free, Country made
him Free—I say it is a sufficient answer to ask, if any of this
ridiculous nonsense, about consolidation and uniformity, did actually
follow? Who heard of any such thing, because of the Ordinance of
'87? because of the Missouri Restriction because of the numerous
Court decisions of that character?
"Now, as to the Dred Scott decision; for upon that he makes his
last point at me. He boldly takes ground in favor of that decision.
This is one-half the onslaught and one-third of the entire plan of the
campaign. I am opposed to that decision in a certain sense, but not
in the sense which he puts on it. I say that in so far as it decided in
favor of Dred Scott's master, and against Dred Scott and his family, I
do not propose to disturb or resist the decision. I never have
proposed to do any such thing. I think, that in respect for judicial
authority, my humble history would not suffer in comparison with
that of Judge Douglas. He would have the citizen conform his vote to
that decision; the member of Congress, his; the President, his use of
the veto power. He would make it a rule of political action for the
People and all the departments of the Government. I would not. By
resisting it as a political rule, I disturb no right of property, create no
disorder, excite no mobs."
After quoting from a letter of Mr. Jefferson (vol. vii., p. 177, of his
Correspondence,) in which he held that "to consider the judges as
the ultimate arbiters of all Constitutional questions," is "a very
dangerous doctrine indeed; and one which would place us under the
despotism of an Oligarchy," Mr. Lincoln continued: "Let us go a little
further. You remember we once had a National Bank. Some one
owed the Bank a debt; he was sued, and sought to avoid payment
on the ground that the Bank was unconstitutional. The case went to
the Supreme Court, and therein it was decided that the Bank was
Constitutional. The whole Democratic party revolted against that
decision. General Jackson himself asserted that he, as President,
would not be bound to hold a National Bank to be Constitutional,
even though the Court had decided it to be so. He fell in, precisely,
with the view of Mr. Jefferson, and acted upon it under his official
oath, in vetoing a charter for a National Bank.
"The declaration that Congress does not possess this
Constitutional power to charter a Bank, has gone into the
Democratic platform, at their National Conventions, and was brought
forward and reaffirmed in their last Convention at Cincinnati. They
have contended for that declaration, in the very teeth of the
Supreme Court, for more than a quarter of a century. In fact, they
have reduced the decision to an absolute nullity. That decision, I
repeat, is repudiated in the Cincinnati platform; and still, as if to
show that effrontery can go no further, Judge Douglas vaunts in the
very speeches in which he denounces me for opposing the Dred
Scott decision, that he stands on the Cincinnati platform.
"Now, I wish to know what the Judge can charge upon me, with
respect to decisions of the Supreme Court, which does not lie in all
its length, breadth, and proportions, at his own door? The plain truth
is simply this: Judge Douglas is for Supreme Court decisions when
he likes, and against them when he does not like them. He is for the
Dred Scott decision because it tends to Nationalize Slavery—because
it is a part of the original combination for that object. It so happens,
singularly enough, that I never stood opposed to a decision of the
Supreme Court till this. On the contrary, I have no recollection that
he was ever particularly in favor of one till this. He never was in
favor of any, nor (I) opposed to any, till the present one, which helps
to Nationalize Slavery. Free men of Sangamon—Free men of Illinois,
Free men everywhere—judge ye between him and me, upon this
issue!
"He says this Dred Scott case is a very small matter at most—that
it has no practical effect; that at best, or rather I suppose at worst, it
is but an abstraction. * * * How has the planting of Slavery in new
countries always been effected? It has now been decided that
Slavery cannot be kept out of our new Territories by any legal
means. In what do our new Territories now differ in this respect
from the old Colonies when Slavery was first planted within them?
"It was planted, as Mr. Clay once declared, and as history proves
true, by individual men in spite of the wishes of the people; the
Mother-Government refusing to prohibit it, and withholding from the
People of the Colonies the authority to prohibit it for themselves. Mr.
Clay says this was one of the great and just causes of complaint
against Great Britain by the Colonies, and the best apology we can
now make for having the institution amongst us. In that precise
condition our Nebraska politicians have at last succeeded in placing
our own new Territories; the Government will not prohibit Slavery
within them, nor allow the People to prohibit it."
Alluding to that part of Mr. Douglas's speech the previous night
touching the death-bed scene of Mr. Clay, with Mr. Douglas's promise
to devote the remainder of his life to "Popular Sovereignty"—and to
his relations with Mr. Webster—Mr. Lincoln said: "It would be
amusing, if it were not disgusting, to see how quick these
Compromise breakers administer on the political effects of their dead
adversaries. If I should be found dead to-morrow morning, nothing
but my insignificance could prevent a speech being made on my
authority, before the end of next week. It so happens that in that
'Popular Sovereignty' with which Mr. Clay was identified, the Missouri
Compromise was expressly reserved; and it was a little singular if Mr.
Clay cast his mantle upon Judge Douglas on purpose to have that
Compromise repealed. Again, the Judge did not keep faith with Mr.
Clay when he first brought in the Nebraska Bill. He left the Missouri
Compromise unrepealed, and in his report accompanying the Bill, he
told the World he did it on purpose. The manes of Mr. Clay must
have been in great agony, till thirty days later, when 'Popular
Sovereignty' stood forth in all its glory."
Touching Mr. Douglas's allegations of Mr. Lincoln's disposition to
make Negroes equal with the Whites, socially and politically, the
latter said: "My declarations upon this subject of Negro Slavery may
be misrepresented, but cannot be misunderstood. I have said that I
do not understand the Declaration (of Independence) to mean that
all men were created equal in all respects. They are not equal in
color; but I suppose that it does mean to declare that all men are
equal in some respects; they are equal in their right to 'Life, Liberty,
and the pursuit of Happiness.' Certainly the Negro is not our equal in
color—perhaps not in many other respects; still, in the right to put
into his mouth the bread that his own hands have earned, he is the
equal of every other man, White or Black. In pointing out that more
has been given you, you cannot be justified in taking away the little
which has been given him. All I ask for the Negro is that if you do
not like him, let him alone. If God gave him but little, that little let
him enjoy.
"The framers of the Constitution," continued Mr. Lincoln, "found
the institution of Slavery amongst their other institutions at the time.
They found that by an effort to eradicate it, they might lose much of
what they had already gained. They were obliged to bow to the
necessity. They gave Congress power to abolish the Slave Trade at
the end of twenty years. They also prohibited it in the Territories
where it did not exist. They did what they could, and yielded to the
necessity for the rest. I also yield to all which follows from that
necessity. What I would most desire would be the separation of the
White and Black races."
 Mr. Lincoln closed his speech by referring to the "New Departure"
of the Democracy—to the charge he had made, in his 16th of June
speech, touching "the existence of a Conspiracy to Perpetuate and
Nationalize Slavery"—which Mr. Douglas had not contradicted—and,
said he, "on his own tacit admission I renew that charge. I charge
him with having been a party to that Conspiracy, and to that
deception, for the sole purpose of Nationalizing Slavery."
This closed the series of preliminary speeches in the canvass. But
they only served to whet the moral and intellectual and political
appetite of the public for more. It was generally conceded that, at
last, in the person of Mr. Lincoln, the "Little Giant" had met his
match.
On July 24, Mr. Lincoln opened a correspondence with Mr.
Douglas, which eventuated in an agreement between them, July
31st, for joint-discussions, to take place at Ottawa, Freeport,
Jonesboro, Charleston, Galesburgh, Quincy, and Alton, on fixed
dates in August, September and October—at Ottawa, Mr. Douglas to
open and speak one hour, Mr. Lincoln to have an hour and a half in
reply, and Mr. Douglas to close in a half hour's speech; at Freeport,
Mr. Lincoln to open and speak for one hour, Mr. Douglas to take the
next hour and a half in reply, and Mr. Lincoln to have the next half
hour to close; and so on, alternating at each successive place,
making twenty-one hours of joint political debate.
To these absorbingly interesting discussions, vast assemblages
listened with breathless attention; and to the credit of all parties be
it said, with unparalleled decorum. The People evidently felt that the
greatest of all political principles—that of Human Liberty—was
hanging on the issue of this great political contest between
intellectual giants, thus openly waged before the World—and they
accordingly rose to the dignity and solemnity of the occasion,
vindicating by their very example the sacredness with which the
Right of Free Speech should be regarded at all times and
everywhere.
 CHAPTER V.

THE PRESIDENTIAL CONTEST OF

1860—
THE CRISIS APPROACHING.

The immediate outcome of the remarkable joint-debate between

the two intellectual giants of Illinois was, that while the popular vote
stood 124,698 for Lincoln, to 121,130 for Douglas—showing a
victory for Lincoln among the People—yet, enough Douglas-
Democrats were elected to the Legislature, when added to those of
his friends in the Illinois Senate, who had been elected two years
before, and "held over," to give him, in all, 54 members of both
branches of the Legislature on joint ballot, against 46 for Mr. Lincoln.
Lincoln had carried the people, but Douglas had secured the
Senatorial prize for which they had striven—and by that Legislative
vote was elected to succeed himself in the United States Senate.
This result was trumpeted throughout the Union as a great Douglas
victory.
During the canvass of Illinois, Douglas's friends had seen to it that
nothing on their part should be wanting to secure success. What
with special car trains, and weighty deputations, and imposing
processions, and flag raisings, the inspiration of music, the booming
of cannon, and the eager shouts of an enthusiastic populace, his
political journey through Illinois had been more like a Royal Progress
than anything the Country had yet seen; and now that his reelection
was accomplished, they proposed to make the most of it—to extend,
as it were, the sphere of his triumph, or vindication, so that it would
include not the State alone, but the Nation—and thus so accentuate
and enhance his availability as a candidate for the Democratic
Presidential nomination of 1860, as to make his nomination and
election to the Presidency of the United States an almost foregone
conclusion.
The programme was to raise so great a popular tidal-wave in his
interest, as would bear him irresistibly upon its crest to the White
House. Accordingly, as the idol of the Democratic popular heart,
Douglas, upon his return to the National Capital, was triumphantly
received by the chief cities of the Mississippi and the Atlantic sea-
board. Hailed as victor in the great political contest in Illinois—upon
the extended newspaper reports of which, the absorbed eyes of the
entire nation, for months, had greedily fed—Douglas was received
with much ostentation and immense enthusiasm at St. Louis,
Memphis, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and
Washington. Like the "Triumphs" decreed by Rome, in her grandest
days, to the greatest of her victorious heroes, Douglas's return was a
series of magnificent popular ovations,
In a speech made two years before this period, Mr. Lincoln, while
contrasting his own political career with that of Douglas, and
modestly describing his own as "a flat failure" had said: "With him it
has been one of splendid success. His name fills the Nation, and is
not unknown even in foreign lands. I affect no contempt for the high
eminence he has reached. So reached, that the oppressed of my
species might have shared with me in the elevation, I would rather
stand on that eminence than wear the richest crown that ever
pressed a monarch's brow." And now the star of Douglas had
reached a higher altitude, nearing its meridian splendor. He had
become the popular idol of the day.
But Douglas's partial victory—if such it was—so far from settling
the public mind and public conscience, had the contrary effect. It
added to the ferment which the Pro-Slavery Oligarchists of the South
—and especially those of South Carolina—were intent upon
increasing, until so grave and serious a crisis should arrive as would,
in their opinion, furnish a justifiable pretext in the eyes of the World
for the contemplated Secession of the Slave States from the Union.
Under the inspiration of the Slave Power, and in the direct line of
the Dred Scott decision, and of the "victorious" doctrine of Senator
Douglas, which he held not inconsistent therewith, that the people
of any Territory of the United States could do as they pleased as to
the institution of Slavery within their own limits, and if they desired
the institution, they had the right by local legislation to "protect and
encourage it," the Legislature of the Territory of New Mexico at once
(1859) proceeded to enact a law "for the protection of property in
Slaves," and other measures similar to the prevailing Slave Codes in
the Southern States.
The aggressive attitude of the South—as thus evidenced anew—
naturally stirred, to their very core, the Abolition elements of the
North; on the other hand, the publication of Hinton Rowan Helper's
"Impending Crisis," which handled the Slavery question without
gloves, and supported its views with statistics which startled the
Northern mind, together with its alleged indorsement by the leading
Republicans of the North, exasperated the fiery Southrons to an
intense degree. Nor was the capture, in October, 1859, of Harper's
Ferry, Virginia, by John Brown and his handful of Northern
Abolitionist followers, and his subsequent execution in Virginia,
calculated to allay the rapidly intensifying feeling between the
Freedom-loving North and the Slaveholding South. When, therefore,
the Congress met, in December, 1859, the sectional wrath of the
Country was reflected in the proceedings of both branches of that
body, and these again reacted upon the People of both the Northern
and Southern States, until the fires of Slavery Agitation were stirred
to a white heat.
The bitterness of feeling in the House at this time, was shown, in
part, by the fact that not until the 1st of February, 1860, was it able,
upon a forty-fourth ballot, to organize by the election of a Speaker,
and that from the day of its meeting on the 5th of December, 1859,
up to such organization, it was involved in an incessant and stormy
wrangle upon the Slavery question.
 So also in the Democratic Senate, the split in the Democratic
Party, between the Lecompton and Anti-Lecompton Democracy, was
widened, at the same time that the Republicans of the North were
further irritated, by the significantly decisive passage of a series of
resolutions proposed by Jefferson Davis, which, on the one hand,
purposely and deliberately knifed Douglas's "Popular Sovereignty"
doctrine and read out of the Party all who believed in it, by declaring
"That neither Congress nor a Territorial Legislature, whether by
direct legislation, or legislation of an indirect and unfriendly
character, possesses power to annul or impair the Constitutional
right of any citizen of the United States to take his Slave-property
into the common Territories, and there hold and enjoy the same
while the Territorial condition remains," and, on the other, purposely
and deliberately slapped in the face the Republicans of the North, by
declaring—among other things "That in the adoption of the Federal
Constitution, the States adopting the same, acted severally as Free
and Independent sovereignties, delegating a portion of their powers
to be exercised by the Federal Government for the increased security
of each against dangers, domestic as well as foreign; and that any
intermeddling by any one or more States or by a combination of
their citizens, with the domestic institutions of the others, on any
pretext whatever, political, moral, or religious, with a view to their
disturbance or subversion, is in violation of the Constitution, insulting
to the States so interfered with, endangers their domestic peace and
tranquillity—objects for which the Constitution was formed—and, by
necessary consequence, tends to weaken and destroy the Union
itself."
Another of these resolutions declared Negro Slavery to be
recognized in the Constitution, and that all "open or covert attacks
thereon with a view to its overthrow," made either by the Non-Slave-
holding States or their citizens, violated the pledges of the
Constitution, "are a manifest breach of faith, and a violation of the
most solemn obligations."
This last was intended as a blow at the Freedom of Speech and of
the Press in the North; and only served, as was doubtless intended,
to still more inflame Northern public feeling, while at the same time
endeavoring to place the arrogant and aggressive Slave Power in an
attitude of injured innocence. In short, the time of both Houses of
Congress was almost entirely consumed during the Session of 1859-
60 in the heated, and sometimes even furious, discussion of the
Slavery question; and everywhere, North and South, the public mind
was not alone deeply agitated, but apprehensive that the Union was
founded not upon a rock, but upon the crater of a volcano, whose
long-smouldering energies might at any moment burst their
confines, and reduce it to ruin and desolation.
On the 23rd of April, 1860, the Democratic National Convention
met at Charleston, South Carolina. It was several days after the
permanent organization of the Convention before the Committee on
Resolutions reported to the main body, and not until the 30th of
April did it reach a vote upon the various reports, which had in the
meantime been modified. The propositions voted upon were three:
First, The Majority Report of the Committee, which reaffirmed the
Cincinnati platform of 1856—with certain "explanatory" resolutions
added, which boldly proclaimed: "That the Government of a Territory
organized by an Act of Congress, is provisional and temporary; and,
during its existence, all citizens of the United States have an equal
right to settle with their property in the Territory, without their rights,
either of person or property, being destroyed or impaired by
Congressional or Territorial Legislation;" that "it is the duty of the
Federal Government, in all its departments, to protect, when
necessary, the rights of persons and property in the Territories, and
wherever else its Constitutional authority extends;" that "when the
settlers in a Territory, having an adequate population, form a State
Constitution, the right of Sovereignty commences, and, being
consummated by admission into the Union, they stand on an equal
footing with the people of other States, and the State thus organized
ought to be admitted into the Federal Union, whether its Constitution
prohibits or recognizes the institution of Slavery;" and that "the
enactments of State Legislatures to defeat the faithful execution of
the Fugitive Slave Law, are hostile in character, subversive of the
Constitution, and revolutionary in effect." The resolutions also
included a declaration in favor of the acquisition of Cuba, and other
comparatively minor matters.
Second, The Minority Report of the Committee, which, after re-
affirming the Cincinnati platform, declared that "Inasmuch as
differences of opinion exist in the Democratic party as to the nature
and extent of the powers of a Territorial Legislature, and as to the
powers and duties of Congress, under the Constitution of the United
States, over the institution of Slavery within the Territories * * * the
Democratic Party will abide by the decisions of the Supreme Court of
the United States on the questions of Constitutional law."
Third, The recommendation of Benjamin F. Butler, that the
platform should consist simply of a re-affirmation of the Cincinnati
platform, and not another word.
The last proposition was first voted on, and lost, by 105 yeas to
198 nays. The Minority platform was then adopted by 165 yeas to
138 nays.
The aggressive Slave-holders (Majority) platform, and the Butler
Compromise do-nothing proposition, being both defeated, and the
Douglas (Minority) platform adopted, the Alabama delegation, under
instructions from their State Convention to withdraw in case the
National Convention refused to adopt radical Territorial Pro-Slavery
resolutions, at once presented a written protest and withdrew from
the Convention, and were followed, in rapid succession, by; the
delegates from Mississippi, Louisiana (all but two), South Carolina,
Florida, Texas, Arkansas (in part), Delaware (mostly), and Georgia
(mostly)—the seceding delegates afterwards organizing in another
Hall, adopting the above Majority platform, and after a four days'
sitting, adjourning to meet at Richmond, Virginia, on the 11th of
June.
Meanwhile, the Regular Democratic National Convention had
proceeded to ballot for President—after adopting the two-thirds rule.
Thirty-seven ballots having been cast, that for Stephen A. Douglas
being, on the thirty-seventh, 151, the Convention, on the 3d of May,
adjourned to meet again at Baltimore, June 18th.
After re-assembling, and settling contested election cases, the
delegates (in whole or in part) from Virginia, North Carolina,
Tennessee, California, Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland and
Massachusetts, withdrew from the Convention, the latter upon the
ground mainly that there had been "a withdrawal, in part, of a
majority of the States," while Butler, who had voted steadily for
Jefferson Davis throughout all the balloting at Charleston, gave as an
additional ground personal to himself, that "I will not sit in a
convention where the African Slave Trade—which is piracy by the
laws of my Country—is approvingly advocated"—referring thereby to
a speech, that had been much applauded by the Convention at
Charleston, made by a Georgia delegate (Gaulden), in which that
delegate had said: "I would ask my friends of the South to come up
in a proper spirit; ask our Northern friends to give us all our rights,
and take off the ruthless restrictions which cut off the supply of
Slaves from foreign lands. * * * I tell you, fellow Democrats, that
the African Slave Trader is the true Union man (cheers and
laughter). I tell you that the Slave Trading of Virginia is more
immoral, more unchristian in every possible point of view, than that
African Slave Trade which goes to Africa and brings a heathen and
worthless man here, makes him a useful man, Christianizes him, and
sends him and his posterity down the stream of Time, to enjoy the
blessings of civilization. (Cheers and laughter.) * * * I come from the
first Congressional District of Georgia. I represent the African Slave
Trade interest of that Section. (Applause.) I am proud of the position
I occupy in that respect. I believe that the African Slave Trader is a
true missionary, and a true Christian. (Applause.) * * * Are you
prepared to go back to first principles, and take off your
unconstitutional restrictions, and leave this question to be settled by
each State? Now, do this, fellow citizens, and you will have Peace in
the Country. * * * I advocate the repeal of the laws prohibiting the
African Slave Trade, because I believe it to be the true Union
movement. * * * I believe that by re-opening this Trade and giving
us Negroes to populate the Territories, the equilibrium of the two
Sections will be maintained."
After the withdrawal of the bolting delegates at Baltimore, the
Convention proceeded to ballot for President, and at the end of the
second ballot, Mr. Douglas having received "two-thirds of all votes
given in the Convention" (183) was declared the "regular nominee of
the Democratic Party, for the office of President of the United
States."
An additional resolution was subsequently adopted as a part of the
platform, declaring that "it is in accordance with the true
interpretation of the Cincinnati platform, that, during the existence
of the Territorial Governments, the measure of restriction, whatever
it may be, imposed by the Federal Constitution on the power of the
Territorial Legislatures over the subject of the domestic relations, as
the same has been, or shall hereafter be, finally determined by the
Supreme Court of the United States, should be respected by all good
citizens, and enforced with promptness and fidelity by every branch
of the General Government."
On the 11th of June, pursuant to adjournment, the Democratic
Bolters' Convention met at Richmond, and, after adjourning to meet
at Baltimore, finally met there on the 28th of that month—twenty-
one States being, in whole or in part, represented. This Convention
unanimously readopted the Southern-wing platform it had previously
adopted at Charleston, and, upon the first ballot, chose, without
dissent, John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky, as its candidate for the
Presidential office.
In the meantime, however, the National Conventions of other
Parties had been held, viz.: that of the Republican Party at Chicago,
which, with a session of three days, May 16-18, had nominated
Abraham Lincoln of Illinois and Hannibal Hamlin of Maine, for
President and Vice-President respectively; and that of the
"Constitutional Union" (or Native American) Party which had
severally nominated (May 19) for such positions, John Bell of
Tennessee, and Edward Everett of Massachusetts.
 The material portion of the Republican National platform, adopted
with entire unanimity by their Convention, was, so far as the Slavery
and Disunion questions were concerned, comprised in these
declarations:
First, That the history of the nation, during the last four years, has
fully established the propriety and necessity of the organization and
perpetuation of the Republican Party; and that the causes which
called it into existence are permanent in their nature, and now, more
than ever before, demand its peaceful and Constitutional triumph.
Second, That the maintenance of the principle, promulgated in the
Declaration of Independence, and embodied in the Federal
Constitution, "that all men are created equal; that they are endowed
by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness; that to secure these
rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just
powers from the consent of the governed," is essential to the
preservation of our Republican institutions; and that the Federal
Constitution, the Rights of the States, and the Union of the States
must and shall be preserved.
Third, That to the Union of the States, this Nation owes its
unprecedented increase in population, its surprising development of
material resources, its rapid augmentation of wealth, its happiness
at home, and its honor abroad; and we hold in abhorrence all
schemes for Disunion, come from whatever source they may: And
we congratulate the Country that no Republican member of
Congress has uttered or countenanced the threats of Disunion, so
often made by Democratic members, without rebuke, and with
applause, from their political associates; and we denounce those
threats of Disunion, in case of a popular overthrow of their
ascendancy, as denying the vital principles of a free Government,
and as an avowal of contemplated Treason, which it is the
imperative duty of an indignant People, sternly to rebuke and forever
silence.
Fourth, That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States,
and especially the right of each State, to order and control its own
domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclusively, is
essential to that balance of powers on which the perfection and
endurance of our political fabric depend; and we denounce the
lawless invasion, by armed force, of any State or Territory, no matter
under what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes.
Fifth, That the present Democratic Administration has far
exceeded our worst apprehensions, in its measureless subserviency
to the exactions of a Sectional interest, as especially evinced in its
desperate exertions to force the infamous Lecompton Constitution
upon the protesting people of Kansas; in construing the personal
relation between master and servant to involve an unqualified
property in persons; in its attempted enforcement, everywhere, on
land and sea, through the intervention of Congress and of the
Federal Courts, of the extreme pretensions of a purely local interest;
and in its general and unvarying abuse of the power intrusted to it
by a confiding People.
*******
Seventh, That the new dogma that the Constitution, of its own
force, carries Slavery into any or all of the Territories of the United
States, is a dangerous political heresy, at variance with the explicit
provisions of that instrument itself, with contemporaneous
exposition, and with legislation and judicial precedent; is
revolutionary in its tendency and subversive of the peace and
harmony of the Country.
Eighth, That the normal condition of all the territory of the United
States is that of Freedom; that as our Republican fathers, when they
had abolished Slavery in all our National Territory, ordained that "No
person should be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due
process of law," it becomes our duty, by legislation, whenever such
legislation is necessary, to maintain this provision of the Constitution
against all attempts to violate it; and we deny the authority of
Congress, of a Territorial Legislature, or of any individuals, to give
legal existence to Slavery in any Territory of the United States.
 Ninth, That we brand the recent re-opening of the African Slave-
trade under the cover of our National flag, aided by perversions of
judicial power, as a crime against humanity and a burning shame to
our Country and Age; and we call upon Congress to take prompt and
efficient measures for the total and final suppression of that
execrable traffic.
Tenth, That in the recent vetoes, by their Federal Governors, of
the acts of the Legislatures of Kansas and Nebraska, prohibiting
Slavery in those Territories, we find a practical illustration of the
boasted Democratic principle of Non-Intervention and Popular
Sovereignty embodied in the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, and a
demonstration of the deception and fraud involved therein.
Eleventh, That Kansas should, of right, be immediately admitted
as a State, under the Constitution recently formed and adopted by
the House of Representatives.
**********
The National platform of the "Constitutional Union" Party, was
adopted, unanimously, in these words:
"Whereas, experience has demonstrated that platforms adopted
by the partisan Conventions of the Country have had the effect to
mislead and deceive the People, and at the same time to widen the
political divisions of the Country, by the creation and encouragement
of geographical and Sectional parties; therefore,
"Resolved, That it is both the part of patriotism and of duty to
recognize no political principle other than the Constitution of the
Country, the Union of the States, and the Enforcement of the Laws,
and that, as representatives of the Constitutional Union men of the
Country, in National Convention assembled, we hereby pledge
ourselves to maintain, protect, and defend, separately and unitedly,
these great principles of public liberty and national safety, against all
enemies, at home and abroad; believing that thereby peace may
once more be restored to the Country, the rights of the people and
of the States re-established, and the Government again placed in
that condition of justice, fraternity, and equality which, under the
example and Constitution of our fathers, has solemnly bound every
citizen of the United States to maintain a more perfect Union,
establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the
common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the
blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity."
Thus, by the last of June, 1860, the four National Parties with their
platforms and candidates were all in the political field prepared for
the onset.
Briefly, the attitude of the standard-bearers representing the
platform-principles of their several Parties, was this:
Lincoln, representing the Republicans, held that Slavery is a
wrong, to be tolerated in the States where it exists, but which must
be excluded from the Territories, which are all normally Free and
must be kept Free by Congressional legislation, if necessary; and
that neither Congress, nor the Territorial Legislature, nor any
individual, has power to give to it legal existence in such Territories.
Breckinridge, representing the Pro-Slavery wing of the Democracy,
held that Slavery is a right, which, when transplanted from the
Slave-States into the Territories, neither Congressional nor Territorial
legislation can destroy or impair, but which, on the contrary, must,
when necessary, be protected everywhere by Congress and all other
departments of the Government.
Douglas, representing the Anti-Lecompton wing of Democracy,
held that whether Slavery be right or wrong, the white inhabitants of
the Territories have the sole right to determine whether it shall or
shall not exist within their respective limits, subject to the
Constitution and Supreme Court decisions thereon; and that neither
Congress nor any State, nor any outside persons, must interfere with
that right.
Bell, representing the remaining political elements, held that it was
all wrong to have any principles at all, except "the Constitution of
the Country, the Union of the States, and the Enforcement of the
Laws"—a platform which Horace Greeley well described as "meaning
anything in general, and nothing in particular."